Bring a Trailer Auctions, E30 edition

[Poorhouse]

Yeah, because they made 40,000k 318is cars. Tons of them out there.

Did you know BMW only made ~4,000 318 convertibles?

You're going to make me feel bad for swapping mine.

[djjerme]

I had some fun with this site the other day:

https://www.howmanyleft.co.uk/

Obviously it's just the UK and doesn't take in to account vehicles that are off the road and not in regular driving service/registration, but it's cool to see how many of each E30 model is still in the system.

[djjerme]

Oh hey look another red M3!

At least you have the option of putting the S14 back in at some point. Should be interesting to see where it ends up.

[Poorhouse]

If I had the budget I would be all over this one.

Euro S50 swapped 20 years ago. Original S14 and trans with a reported 23k miles.

Awesome.

[AllydNYC]

I'm bidding on the S50 M3 and I'm not sure how much more it is worth. I have no one in person that I know that would understand even half of this, so here are my thoughts to all you r3v peeps:

Since there are no maintenance records and the swap was done in the 90s, it seems a little rough for my standards mechanically and looks to need a decent amount of sorting to make me comfortable with the reliability. I understand the original owner was the proprietor of a BMW repair shop but it still has me thinking...

I cannot find a milage of the S50 or the ZF in the description. The harness cover has a screw through the top of it and is pushed over to the right of the car too much. I'm concerned about what the wiring looks like under there and how tight the wiring is. It might just need to get the harness rebuilt. Afterall, it was swapped in the 90s, decades before any products like custom harnesses, reinforced front subframes, 24v engine mounts, etc were made available for a 24v swap. I feel that's going to lead to a bunch of, now available, 24v swap parts getting installed for better fitment/finished, drivability and reliability. That isn't a bad thing but for a car that will likely go for 30k+ and an engine that is rare out here (North America), it sounds like a large investment. There aren't any exhaust heat shields and in one of the undercarriage pictures, it looks like one of the flex disk bolts is starting to get rounded. Hopefully that won't be a problem to remove. Also, it has the original E30 M3 exhaust which will all need to be replaced, I feel like that isn't benefitting the S50B32 although, I do not know the diameter of the exhaust on the S14.

I don't know about seals either, minus the valve cover. I'm sure they're getting pretty old. In particular I wonder how the front crankshaft seal, rear main seal, clutch and transmission components are...

Overall, it's still a nice car and if the appearance of it is giving off any hints, it might have been very well taken care of mechanically. I just have to nitpick when I'm looking at a car to purchase, I'm sure most will understand.

[s1uma1]

Confused on the description. States engine swap in early 1990s... but e36 wasn't even out yet?? Did they mean early 2000s?

[Poorhouse]

IMO it is a very desirable swap.
I would plan to go through the wiring, mounts, cooling, ps, ac etc.
For me that would be a fun way to get to know the car. Even if you had to rebuild all those systems your only looking at a couple grand.
Figure high at $5k in work to sort it 100%.

Assuming no wrecks, original paint, panels etc. I think it is worth $35k without the S14 and trans. If those are worth $10k-$15k you are at $50k or so.

Ultimately the car is worth more with the original engine/trans installed. What would it be worth in original condition $50-$55k? Then you have the S50 and trans to sell. What are they worth? I have no idea. The US stuff would be $3k or so. The Euro stuff has to be worth more.

IDK anything under $50k seems like it would be a deal.

[djjerme]

Check the M registry for history and the Googles. If the history is fairly clean, 30k-40k is not a bad deal.

The fact the S14 comes with it puts it above many swaps I've seen. Often the original motor is long gone or was sold to help fund the swap.

That could also increase the bidding too, because you'll have people who want it as an S50 swapped M3, and those that want a numbers matching M3, witch this still technically is with the included S14.

Should be an interesting finish


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[flyboyx]

I'm bidding on the S50 M3 and I'm not sure how much more it is worth. I have no one in person that I know that would understand even half of this, so here are my thoughts to all you r3v peeps:

Since there are no maintenance records and the swap was done in the 90s, it seems a little rough for my standards mechanically and looks to need a decent amount of sorting to make me comfortable with the reliability. I understand the original owner was the proprietor of a BMW repair shop but it still has me thinking...

I cannot find a milage of the S50 or the ZF in the description. The harness cover has a screw through the top of it and is pushed over to the right of the car too much. I'm concerned about what the wiring looks like under there and how tight the wiring is. It might just need to get the harness rebuilt. Afterall, it was swapped in the 90s, decades before any products like custom harnesses, reinforced front subframes, 24v engine mounts, etc were made available for a 24v swap. I feel that's going to lead to a bunch of, now available, 24v swap parts getting installed for better fitment/finished, drivability and reliability. That isn't a bad thing but for a car that will likely go for 30k+ and an engine that is rare out here (North America), it sounds like a large investment. There aren't any exhaust heat shields and in one of the undercarriage pictures, it looks like one of the flex disk bolts is starting to get rounded. Hopefully that won't be a problem to remove. Also, it has the original E30 M3 exhaust which will all need to be replaced, I feel like that isn't benefitting the S50B32 although, I do not know the diameter of the exhaust on the S14.

I don't know about seals either, minus the valve cover. I'm sure they're getting pretty old. In particular I wonder how the front crankshaft seal, rear main seal, clutch and transmission components are...

Overall, it's still a nice car and if the appearance of it is giving off any hints, it might have been very well taken care of mechanically. I just have to nitpick when I'm looking at a car to purchase, I'm sure most will understand.

are you serious? judging by what you wrote here, there is a pretty good chance you are way too anal for e30's. i call dibs on the next batch of diamonds that fall out of your buttcrack the next time you drop a deuce.

perhaps a new lexus is in your future.

[AllydNYC]

IMO it is a very desirable swap.
I would plan to go through the wiring, mounts, cooling, ps, ac etc.
For me that would be a fun way to get to know the car. Even if you had to rebuild all those systems your only looking at a couple grand.
Figure high at $5k in work to sort it 100%.

Assuming no wrecks, original paint, panels etc. I think it is worth $35k without the S14 and trans. If those are worth $10k-$15k you are at $50k or so.

Ultimately the car is worth more with the original engine/trans installed. What would it be worth in original condition $50-$55k? Then you have the S50 and trans to sell. What are they worth? I have no idea. The US stuff would be $3k or so. The Euro stuff has to be worth more.

IDK anything under $50k seems like it would be a deal.

I was thinking similar thoughts. 5k is what I thought it would take to get it in top shape with me doing all the work.

are you serious? judging by what you wrote here, there is a pretty good chance you are way too anal for e30's. i call dibs on the next batch of diamonds that fall out of your buttcrack the next time you drop a deuce.

perhaps a new lexus is in your future.

Yeah, I'm serious. Maybe I am way too anal for E30s but if my current E30 swap in a roughy bodied car is anything, it might not be a bad thing. I'm throwing thoughts out there on r3v, a website with vast E30 knowledge. Normally, this is something you would talk to a friend about but everyone I associate with knows squat about car mechanics which means I if I need advice, I have to go to a website. It looks like my positive thoughts that I didn't express in my previous post, line up with others. This is something worth bidding good money on.

You're in luck for my next dank duece, the Squatty Potty has them coming out silky smooth.

[IronJoe]

The swapped car with original engine is an interesting situation.

Personally, I think it's a package that's not worth the sum of its parts. Yeah, an S14 engine + trans is worth $10k. And yeah, a euro S50 is worth +/-5k (or whatever the current number is, I'm no expert. And a clean E30 M3 is worth xxx.

But if the plan is to get this car "at a deal" and put the S14 back in, you are looking at a lot of work for what amounts to an M3 that has been messed with. Snip snap, snip snap. And to spend the few grand to swap things back, your s50 profit melts away and you are left with a fucked with E30 M3 that is worth less due to questionable history.

And how do we know the S14 is in good shape? Was it prepped for long term storage and stored properly? If it was just pulled and drained and dropped in the corner of a garage, expect some nice cancer in the cylinder walls due to rust. I once bought a "trust me it's good" motor and I ended up trashing the block - the S14 is a fickle lady, I would expect to do a rebuild on the motor that comes with this car, regardless of its low mileage.


AllydNYC - if you want a swapped M3, this might be the car for you. But if you want an original S14 M3, I would recommend you buy any number of the $30k driver-quality cars now available and slowly improve its condition over time. I don't know if you've noticed, but there's a bit of a glut in the E30 M3 market as people attempt to cash in on the valuation increases with their "average" quality cars.

[2mAn]

Buy the M3.
swap the S14 into a 2002.
sell the car that's less fun
Win

[flyboyx]

It's already up to 30k. My guess is it will sell in the low to mid 40's? What say you guys?

Personally, I'm not a huge fan of red, but the car looks good.

[IronJoe]

Buy the M3.
swap the S14 into a 2002.
sell the car that's less fun
Win

No doubt, personally that's what I'd do - but I have the tools, skills, and shop space to DIY everything.

But if you're looking to swap the S14 back in, to have a numbers-matching E30 M3... if having an original S14 M3 is your goal, just buy one of the driver condition cars that pop up all the time these days. Would be much less effort and potentially cheaper, too.

[IronJoe]

Personally, I'm not a huge fan of red, but the car looks good.

As red goes, I love Henna (biased) and zinno is an absolute snoozefest. But I can't remember seeing a cinnabar M3 in person before, it looks brighter than zinno so that would be a plus I think. At least it's not diamondschwarz :p